At no time was the acquisition of Kwame a farsighted move that resulted in Pau. If you want to identify a good FO, maybe Memphis saw value in Marc Gasol and that is why they did the trade...or Aaron McKie was just too tempting to pass up.

Ok, let's take a look at the magical "one sided" trade. We got Pau. We got 2 rings. Then we got an overpaid, no defense softy 7 footer on the books. Worth it?

We gave up meaningless roster fill (you like to focus on Kwame for obvious downplay reasons) and rights/ picks. But let's focus on what memphis was REALLY after in the trade- the rights/ picks. We traded, in essence a player projected to be decent and THREE draft picks, two of them being first rounders. Sound familiar?

IF we had kept the rights/ picks AND drafted the exact same players that Memphis did (or traded for immediately thereafter what they did) today on our roster we would have:

Marc Gasol

Darrell Arthur (still on the board was Pekovic, DeAndre Jordan, Asik and Dragic)

Greivas Vasquez (still on the board was Lance Stephenson)

So, we give up 2 rings ... probably. But the roster would look alot different today, no?

Since you like to make up fantasy rosters, let's try one if the Pau trade never happens and Mitch is a genius, here would be your starting lineup for the last THREE years:

Dragic

Stephenson

Kobe

(veteran FA who wants a ring)

Marc Gasol

Do you think we would have had a shot at anything with THAT lineup? Maybe two rings in 3 years and more in the next few years?

Even if we had made the same moves Memphis did, we would have been competitive at least and in a FAR better position today. Instead, we are facing the likely longest cold spell in Laker history.

And this is the "good" trade Mitch made. The bad ones really stink the place up.

Trading for rings is ALWAYS the right thing to do. If Cleveland trades Wiggins, wins 2 rings and the guy goes on to be better than LeBron it would still be a good deal. Every year there are multiple very good teams, players, and moves that can be made, but there is only one champion. The goal is to win the championship every year, and any move you can make to ensure that you have the best chance is always the best move because you may not ever get another chance to win a ring. When you are in a position like the Lakers are right now and you have no realistic way of contending in the next season then you are best off stockpiling assets and building over the next few season, which they are doing. They have no long term contract outside of Young, he is relatively cheap, and they have acquired a draft pick for essentially nothing. They haven't done a great job but they have made some progress.